What Is Cystic Acne?

Cystic acne is a less common variety of acne found in teens and adults most often happening during adolescence and is generally caused by a hormonal imbalance. It is bacteria that is infectious that commonly clogs the subcutaneous pores on the skin.

This clogging most often happens when skin begins overproducing oils that become caught in the subcutaneous pores. You can spot cystic acne by its reddish coloration and the blood and pus that can be extruded by squeezing the infected area.

The term cystic is used to cover many forms of inflamed acne but only truly covers those where soft, fluid filled cysts form under the skin. It occurs from an overproduction of sebum or your skin’s natural oil that grows bacteria, clogs pores and becomes infected.

The cystic area of infection is generally packed with bacteria that makes the skin very itchy, causing the automatic reaction to scratch or squeeze the infected area, attempting to soothe the skin. However, this bacteria spreads further on the skin via the pus that is excreted by popping or scratching the infected areas, and both of these actions can lead to permanent scarification or pox on the epidermis. Unfortunately, squeezing or scratching the infected area is not recommended, although it is often psychologically challenging.

To exacerbate this situation, many of those affected use a mask of makeup to hide the pimples or scars, clogging the pores further, increasing the growth of the bacteria which can feed off of some of the materials found in different cosmetics. This can create more painful abscesses and a worsening of outbreaks.

As with most forms of acne, the best prevention or removal of cystic acne is to keep your skin clean and to exfoliate your pores daily with products like Acnetene. Unlike most forms however, there is no known “cure” for cystic acne, so once you have your first breakout, you will likely be combating it as long as you do not keep your skin clean.

Cystic acne is caused by a heavy buildup of oils in the subcutaneous layer of the skin, so most of the treatments available pull much of these oils from the skin. As with other forms of acne, a face cream for acne with an infusion of antioxidants, such as Aloe Vera and green tea will remove many of the unnatural oils that tend to cause buildups on the subcutaneous layers of the skin.

There are many exfoliating creams that can also aid in the removal of damaging oils that can cause an acne infection. Most of these are inexpensive and are fantastic at treating the sub dermal infections that can lead to an acne breakout. Another possibility for an extremely heavy infection or a continuous buildup is a laser treatment that will forcefully open the pores. This will not only clean dead cells from the pores with direct lasers, it also makes the infected pores smaller so future infections cannot reach the subcutaneous locations.

Like most other forms of acne, keeping unnatural oils away by not touching your face during rest or sleep, and not drinking excessive amounts of coffee or soda, which can remove many of the natural oils that can keep these infections at bay, can help to eliminate the outbreaks.